The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2017-09-13 12:52 pm
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Test Drive #21

Welcome to the Synodiporia Test Drive Meme! Below the cuts there are two new prompts, and here are the prompts from previous test-drives, which you’re still welcome to use in this post. When you comment, be sure you specify what prompt you want to play with, and please put up your own threadstarter—it makes for a much more friendly environment than a forest of bare toplevels! OCs are especially welcome! Please take a quick look at our Directory & familiarize yourself with the concept and setting of the game before you jump in.

Our upcoming app round runs September 16th–26th. Our next Jaunt will be Night Falls on Yensid, a fantasy Jaunt taking place in a formerly magic kingdom whose history went awry when other Travelers failed to properly complete a previous Jaunt there, one of the many forgotten Jaunts from before Synodiporia properly began as a Dreamwidth game. There will be no Walkabout run alongside this Jaunt.

Prompt #55 takes place in a punishment Liminal Space for a Jaunt that the Travelers failed to solve.
Prompt #56 takes place during the first Jaunt the Travelers made to the Kingdom of Yensid, during its Golden Age.

#55

It’s difficult to make out the shape of this Liminal Space, at first, thanks to the decor; it’s somehow both pitch black and eye-searingly bright at the same time, the pulsing rainbow patterns cutting through the darkness making it all but impossible to properly judge distance. The truly persistent, or those who manage to abuse Liminal ‘down is relative’ gravity without hitting a pitfall for long enough, may eventually determine that it seems to be a giant egg. More so than many iterations of Liminal Space, it’s completely closed off.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be very difficult indeed to figure out. It’s not just the impossible coloration that makes navigation difficult; there’s a terrible storm raging, and the whipping winds and cracking thunder make it all too easy to stumble into a pitfall by accident. And those pitfalls don’t exactly want to let go of anyone they ensnare, either. Errant Travelers may find themselves supporting an impossibly heavy overhead weight, or pushing a boulder eternally uphill, or trying to catch an ever-lowering drink of water, or pouring water into a tub riddled with gaping cracks, or any number of other seemingly endless, pointless tasks. They can be escaped with help from another Traveler, or one person can be released from the task when another stumbles in.

The only respite from this - the colors, the storm, the punishments - is in the form of Travelers’ created spaces, but those are as difficult to get to right now as everything else. Good luck.

#56

It's a chaotic time for the Kingdom of Yensid. The Amulet of Yensid, that fabled magical artifact that must be rejoined each lunar year so that the kingdom's three races can continue their peaceful magical coexistence, has gone missing. Two-thirds of it, the humans' fragment and the Forest Folk's fragment, are nowhere to be found. The capital city is just as bustling as ever despite this, with reptilian Stonefolk flitting from place to place in their usual parkour-like fashion, small animal-like Forest Folk hawking various potions and crafts, and humans making all sorts of deals.

There's an undercurrent of urgency to the day's business. Small groups of three or four of various species move through the city with enchanted mirrors, dowsing rods, fishing lures, and all other manner of magical items designed to aid in the act of finding something, but so far, no one's turned up anything solid yet. A few of the stronger magicked items are leading their owners out towards the foreboding Birdlime Mountains, but that's the most promising lead anyone has.
razorblade_empress: (At rest)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-18 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
"I think that depends on what you're trying to learn. Some people are a lot more jumpy than I am." And Yukino herself had been among them, once upon a time.

She shrugs. "I've been around a few times, yeah."
smokeandcarbs: (just a hostage)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-18 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"Jumpy and non-jumpy people have different lessons to teach, I suppose."

As if on cue, a reptile creature jumps from a rooftop to another. Jean still has no idea why they keep doing that.

"I have this notion that if I pay enough attention, I will learn a way back home."
razorblade_empress: (At rest)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-18 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Some of those lessons have the potential to get really unpleasant," she points out.

She watches the Stonefolk hop across the rooftops. That's a skill that probably would have come in handy back home. "I think a lot of people hope that." She considers for a moment. "Unless this constitutes an actual improvement for them, I guess..."
smokeandcarbs: (smoke in the wind)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-18 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Jean's country has been at peace for over a hundred years. That status quo was, in part, his family's legacy. It's a little hard to imagine people living in a situation in which the jaunts would constitute an improvement, but he is open to the possibility.

"If I had to guess, I would say you are the sort that still has a place to go back to."

She helped him when a more jaded person wouldn't.
razorblade_empress: (At rest)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-19 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
"I certainly hope so." Unfortunately, that had been in serious doubt when she'd been Arcana-napped.
Edited 2017-09-19 01:59 (UTC)
smokeandcarbs: (one more cigarette in Suitsu)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-19 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
He doesn't even know what Arcana-napped is yet. It must be very bad!

"You should be more careful, though. Saving idiots like me is dangerous in any world."

But he's grateful anyway.
razorblade_empress: (At rest)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-20 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
Well, it did just cost him his cigarettes, however inadvertently.

She shrugs again. "I've put myself in worse spots before."

Anna would certainly argue that, anyway...
smokeandcarbs: (hmm)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-20 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
His poor cigarettes. He's going to miss them.

He doesn't doubt her words. People who are strong tend to go overboard.

"Rescuing others or just generally getting in trouble?"

She has a rascally air about her.
razorblade_empress: (Smiling)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-21 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Little of both," she admits. "I was something of a hellraiser during my misspent youth."

And a bit after that, too.
smokeandcarbs: (smile dark)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-21 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
He keeps attracting those...

"You seem to have turned out all right for a hellraiser. Got some help?"
razorblade_empress: (Smiling)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-21 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor Jean.

"Yeah, actually - one of the teachers at my old school." Sometimes she wonders what Ms. Saeko would think of all this.
smokeandcarbs: (just a hostage)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-22 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
At least they tend to rescue him when he's in distress?

"That would be something nice to go back to. Maybe pass the kindness forward and help little hellraisers of your own."

razorblade_empress: (At rest)

[personal profile] razorblade_empress 2017-09-22 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
There is that.

"Oh, I've been doing a little of that here and there, too. Or at least I was before I ended up here." Anna's probably worried sick by now, assuming time's passing the same there as it is here.
smokeandcarbs: (hmm)

[personal profile] smokeandcarbs 2017-09-23 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
People worrying about you is the worse.

"I've noticed some travelers stick together. Maybe you can find them here too. I'd offer, but I've never been a proper delinquent."

Though he likes to think that he tried.
Edited 2017-09-23 01:02 (UTC)